1. Field
The following description relates to a portable terminal for displaying a local service suitable for a user based on context awareness technology, and an operation method of the portable terminal.
2. Description of Related Art
A local network that is accessible only as a local wireless network, such as, for example, a hot spot, a femtocell, and the like, may be referred to as a localized network. A network service within the localized network may be referred to as a local service.
Due to the many developments in mobile communication and near-field wireless communication technology, a portable terminal may be connected to the Internet without constraints on a time and an occasion, and may be connected to a neighboring local wireless network to utilize a local service.
In general, in a situation in which a user desires to utilize a neighboring local service using the portable terminal, the user may need or like to be aware of the variety of local services available around the portable terminal. In addition, the user may need or like to know which local service is connected to which local wireless network, and how to be connected to a local service within a corresponding local wireless network.
A process of obtaining, by the portable terminal, corresponding information to utilize a predetermined neighboring local service is referred to as a local service discovery.
As a result of the local service discovery, the user may obtain a list of the local services connectable and available at a predetermined point. The list of local services may be displayed on the portable terminal in the form of a text list, or may be shown to the user by displaying a corresponding service area on a map. However, according to generalization of local services, a plurality of local services may be discovered in a relatively narrow area, which may result in displaying a relatively large number of local service discovery results on a small screen of the portable terminal Such a display may obfuscate the choice of services available to the user, or otherwise cause the individual services to be difficult to discern due to the number of choices displayed on the relatively small screen.
As such, even though the development of wireless communication technology has enabled the user to utilize a variety of local services using the portable terminal, the user may spend a relatively large amount of time attempting to discover a local service suitable for the user according to an increase in a number of local services around the portable terminal.
In particular, when utilizing a mobile computing environment that is not a general personal computing environment, the user may experience an inconvenient user interface due to a small display screen. For example, a user of a cellular phone may be inconvenienced due to the size of the cellular phone's display, as opposed to the user of a device such as a laptop computer, which has a much larger display.